In the Mind of the Beholder
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: What if Astro had only been a figment of Tobio's imagination?


**In the Mind of the Beholder**

**Tobio **shook the snow globe in his hand. The hollow glass sphere was filled with a liquid in which tiny white particles of plastic 'snow' were suspended. As he caused the fluid to swill around a snow storm raged about the model of the Ministry of Science building at the bottom of the globe. Three figures stood outside the building in the storm, they were perfect representations of Doctor Tenma, Professor Ochanomizu, and Tobio himself. The boy set the snow globe on the desk and watched as he, his father and god-father were surrounded by the blizzard. Soon they were buried up to their necks in a plastic snow drift.

* * *

**Atom** opened his eyes and slowly raised his head. The various wires that were attached to contacts all over his body fell away as he sat up on the operating table. He blinked his eyes, trying to clear his vision, he was seeing two Dr. Tenmas standing next to each other, slowly whirling about. He blinked again and the vision cleared. The sound of the Doctor calling his name echoed and reverberated, slowly his hearing also grew sharp and he could understand what his creator was saying.  
"Tobio!" Dr. Tenma cried out to the robot. He reached out to the mechanical copy of his son and hugged it with tears in his eyes.

* * *

**Atom** and all of the other robots who remained behind on the Earth, waved goodbye to the departing spaceships. Most of the planet's human population, save for those that were now seeking shelter from the increasing heat by moving toward the polar regions of the planet, were leaving for space. They would either join the colonies on the Moon, or Mars, or just live in the huge spaceships until the sun returned to normal. Atom would lead the robots in keeping watch on the Earth, so that the human race might have a home to return to if the sun ever did return back to normal.

Atom watched as the Earth grew smaller in his view scope, and the sun loomed larger and larger. A robot scientist had created a device that, in theory, would return the sun to normal and allow human life on Earth to return. He was piloting a spaceship carrying the device, all of the robots left behind on Earth, and the humans out in space were watching his progress via telescopes.

The sun was now in range, and the instruments indicated a clear launch window. Atom released the nose cone of the rocket and the device flew free of his ship, heading for the sun. As Atom changed course to return to Earth via a long intersecting orbit he saw in his telescope that the projectile had been struck by a meteor and was now off course on a path that would never bring it close enough to the star to be of any use. He knew he had to put the device back on target, but his rocket ship was now heading away from the device, and it didn't have enough fuel to intercept it. Atom opened the airlock and flew under his own rocket power toward the missile. He held on tightly to it and pushed it back on the right path toward the sun.

Atom looked back at the Earth and smiled. He didn't have enough power to return to his spaceship, his only option was to drift in space and watch his projectile reach its target. He began to feel the heat from the sun, and realized that he might soon begin to melt. Atom didn't feel any sorrow, he was happy to be the instrument of human salvation. He slowly lost consciousness as his power waned.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma** and his wife Hoshie were awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from the hospital.  
"His EEG has spiked, it looks like he's coming out of it!" Dr. Tezuka told the scientist.  
"What is it?" Hoshie asked.  
"Maybe the miracle we were hoping for all these years." her husband replied.

**Tobio** opened his eyes and gazed around the room. The darkness of deep space was gone. He looked around him and saw the faces of the hospital doctors and nurses, he was deeply confused. Tobio looked down at himself, and rubbed his hand over his chest. Where was the latch that opened the panel? He couldn't find it. Tobio ran his hands though his hair, the stiff spikes were gone, he felt only the soft fibers of his uncombed locks. A look of panic crossed his face.

Dr. Tenma and Hoshie walked into the hospital room, and looked at their son. The boy was several inches taller than they remembered, for even while lying on the bed with tubes in his nose and IV's attached to his arms, his body had grown slowly over the years while he was in a near vegetative state.

"How did I get back from the sun?" Tobio asked. "I was melting from the heat. How did I end up here?"

His parents looked at him with some confusion.

Another doctor entered the room.  
"I heard that Tobio has regained consciousness." the surgeon said.

"Yes, Kuro." Dr. Tezuka replied to his colleague, "He has. But he seems very confused. I think he's just awakened from a long dream and has confused that with reality."

"I was dreaming?" Tobio asked. He again examined his body. "I'm not a robot anymore?"

"You never were." His god-father told him. Professor Ochanomizu bend down to look his god-son in the eyes. "We're glad you're back."

Sitting on a stand next to the bed was a snow globe. Tobio noticed it and picked it up. He swirled the liquid around and watched the plastic snow drift about and around the Ministry of Science. Standing in front of the building were life like figures of Dr. Tenma, Professor Ochanomizu, and a bare chested boy with Tobio's face. He had sharp spike like cowlicks, and was wearing red boots and a tight fitting pair of dark pants with a wide green belt around the waist.

* * *

_How many of you remember the season finale of the TV show "St. Elsewhere"? That was the inspiration for this quick little story._


End file.
